Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Clippers have continued their impressive opening to the NBA season, matching their best start to a year in franchise history by thumping the Chicago Bulls 101-80 at Staples Center yesterday.
The victory was the fifth straight for the Clippers, who were led by big man Blake Griffin’s double-double and Jamal Crawford’s prolific shooting to improve to 7-2.
Griffin scored a game high 26 points and added 10 rebounds while Crawford chimed in with 22 points of his own as the home side dominated.
“It’s about my team mates, it’s about how they space the floor and are giving me the confidence throughout the game,” Griffin told reporters.
“It was a very important win.”
Having played eight of their opening nine games at home the Clippers must now prove their worth on the road as they head for a tough four-game run in five days, including contests against the San Antonio Spurs (8-2) and Oklahoma City Thunder (7-3).
The only other time in franchise history the Clippers won seven of their opening nine games was 2005-06 where they finished 47-35 on the year, and ended up one victory short of the Western Conference Finals.
“Yeah, we’re thrilled. But it’s early,” head coach Vinny Del Negro said.
“We’re happy but we let a couple of games slip away.
“Against some of the top teams I felt we played solid basketball at times but we have to be more consistent.
“It’s early on and guys are still getting their feet under them a little bit.
“We have a tough road trip coming up and we have to handle it right. We’ll see where we are after that; it will be a good test for us.”
The Bulls, still playing without injured former league MVP Derrick Rose, trailed for the majority of the night and dropped to 5-4 on the season.
Carlos Boozer was the pick of the Bulls line-up with 22 points and 12 assists.
Elsewhere, Boston point guard Rajon Rondo returned from an ankle injury and handed out 20 assists as he piloted the Celtics to a 107-89 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors. Rondo, who missed Thursday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets with a sprained right ankle, had the Celtics’ offense firing on all cylinders.
Jason Terry made four three-pointers en route to scoring 20 points and Paul Pierce added 19 points and six rebounds for the Celtics, who improved to 6-4.
“He’s Peyton Manning out there,” Boston’s Courtney Lee said after the match, likening Rondo to the master NFL quarterback now with the Denver Broncos.
“He’s picking the defense apart and he’s getting the ball to guys in the right position to score. He was actually mad about the 20 assists -- he thought he could have gotten 30. REUTERS
